Allotments 4 All

We have taken an allotment for the first time and found it's over run with marestail. I think this is also called horses tail. What's the best way to control this weed. The allotments either side are occupied so I don't want to do anything that would do any damage. There is nothing else in the allotment.

Much has been said on this subject, as it appears to be a particular problem this year. The best you can do is type marestail into the search engine on this site, accessed from the top of the forum page.

Welcome, by the way ! You have found an excellent site here !

Welcome Juliaanne. Great site to be on. Always answers to any questions posted. Enjoy!!
Lorna

 ;D

Hiya...good advice already given, but in a nutshell...

Dig, stamp on it to break stem and hit it with glyphosate, wait, dig, dig, dig....

then dig some more and learn to live with bits of it!

Welcome to the site!!

;)

I have it on both my plots.  I dig dig dig, and pull pull pull.  The roots are long, brown and brittle and every little bit will reshoot.  'They' reakon it doesn't like being overshadowed.  Tell it to the marestail that grew quite happily in the deep shade of my potato foliage!

Yes I find the same. It grows quite happily in amongst all my crops, including the jerusalem artichokes. Controlling it is essentially about containment, rather than elimination.

It is Horsetail.. Mares tail is aquatic... but who cares we all know what you've got. It has survived 250+ Million years from the carboniferous period so you aren't going to kill it. It is a weed of poor soil/wasteland.. as well as the dig/pull technique do everything to improve soil fertility.. add muck cultivate and it will get less and less of a problem... the roots will still be in the subsoil but it will push up in some less irritating spot!
:)

If you have  pal who is a farmer ask him to let you have some industrial formula glyphos ( ROUNDUP )with the accelerant . you mix both according to his instructions and then apply , the glycol accelerent will make it grow faster at the same time the glyphos will hit it .i used it on a bad plot for a pal on all weeds including tail, couch and the dang burdock and it killed everything on the plot and within 10 weeks he was planting , a small spray with some mix in was used to back up any weeds that came back by coming from the nieghbours plots . buy roundup but dont mix as directed if you cannot get it from a pal mix it less 1/2 times normal

The Carboniferous Period lasted from about 354-290 million years ago, so if you reckon 300 plus you'll be nearer the mark. At least you have the compensation, if that's the word for it, of growing a living fossil! Dinosaurs ate that stuff, and it was ancient then.

The plant has male and female versions.  I suggest you google to get a picture of these.   The male is the "hairy" looking one that you probably can see everywhere.  The female is a single stem with an inch long tip full of evil spores.  Assuming that you have some regrowth next year after all your weedkiller attempts, the females will pop up.  I'd be surprised if you have any right now.
Taking great care, I cut the female heads off as soon as I see them in the hope of removing the heads before they open and disperse the spores.  I bend the stem over so that the cutting operation is done entirely within a bag, that the heads are collected in, just in case any are opening.
You will still need to eradicate your existing weeds, but at least it will slow the spread of new ones.
Good luck; it may not seem like it now but you can recover your plot enough to make it productive.

I never realised there were male and female plants .... this will make it easier to control ... thank you.

it is an excellent natural fungicide and as you are unlikely to get rid of it completely you might as well make use of it and learn to love it  :D

can you tell us the recipe? I seem to remember it involved boiling the evil plants - good fun, surely?  beyond that my memory fails.

just by leaving remnants in the ground will suffice and as it is so difficult to get rid of it will be supplying the natural ingredients all the time but you could make up a solution, just throw some in a bucket and let the rain fall on it (like comfrey feed) - might make a useful spray for the greenhouse - I think it is the silica content that supplies the fungicide and I believe herbalists use it extensively, so it really is friend  :)

it is also known as scouring rush and a handfull tied together does make for a good pot cleaner and I guess it all comes down to how 'pretty' we want our plots to be

I am pulling it up all the time, but now I have started leaving it on the soil surface as a mulch, letting the weather do its business. To know I am increasing the antifungal properties of my soil is reassuring, if that is what I am doing ...

as long as spores are not present - wouldn't want you shouting at me next year for a profusion of horsetail  :'(

if you are going to pull it up then junk that - I was really referring to those that get left in the ground will have some use and that it isn't as awful as some folk think  :)

Buff Orpingtons like to eat it...hurrah!